Report Calls For Gun Ban

Durham University researcher Rob Hornsby has called for a ban on replica guns after carrying out an investigation last year alongside leading criminologist Prof Ian Taylor, who died in January aged 56.

Durham University researcher Rob Hornsby has called for a ban on replica guns after carrying out an investigation last year alongside leading criminologist Prof Ian Taylor, who died in January aged 56.

Prof Taylor, who advised the Government on gun control after the Dunblane school shooting, and Mr Hornsby carried out the research between August and October 2000 using four focus groups.

Their report, Replica Firearms - a new frontier in the gun market, focuses on sessions organised around the display of six pairs of firearms.

The group expressed astonishment at the scale of the gun market and explored a range of explanations as to what motivated people to buy them in the first place. Mr Hornsby said: "Our research shows that there needs to be tougher legislation on replica guns.

The Metropolitan Police are having huge problems with an increasing number of young men walking around with them on display causing huge problems for police officers.

"The replicas are legal so the Met are looking to at least ban them from being displayed in public.

"In Los Angeles they are banned because of a number of incidents in which young men have been shot by police while carrying replicas.

"There is also evidence to suggest this type of firearms are being used in robberies and there has been a growing number seized in Durham.

"I also know personally that youngsters as young as 10 and 11 have been stopped by police in the North East carrying replica sub-machine guns."